The Difference Between Him and She
by Skight
Summary: Its no secret that the Dragon Warrior and Master Tigress have completely opposite personalities, but it's even more interesting to note the differences in their reactions to the same events or challenges. A collection of one-shots exhibiting the two's different responses to same scenarios. Still In-progress.
1. Chapter 1

The difference between him and she

Disclaimer: Do I have to...Fine! I don't own Kung Fu Panda, though it'd be cool if I did.

A/N: I have written before, but this is my first attempt at a fanfiction. Don't know how good I am, so I'll let you be the judge of that. Also, a little warning, I'm a bit busy as it is, so I'll probably be slow to update, but hey, at least it's something :) Also, if you want me to continue I'm going to need to see at least a little some support, like in reviews or...something. Just so I know I'm not wasting my time. Yeah, now that that's out of the way, onto the story!

_Italics_ = Thoughts

**Bold**=Title

**Training**

**Po**

"Awww, come on Master Shifu. I said I was sorry!"

"Quiet panda!" Said master barked back. "This is your consequence for waking up late... yet again."

"But don't you think this punishment is a little...I don't know...not fitting."

"You're right. Perhaps I should have you train with Tigress instead."

"NO!" Po input in a hurry. "I mean, now that you mention it, I don't really mind the obstacle course all that much."

"I knew you didn't."

The Dragon Warrior stepped forward, stared down the obstacle course before him, and froze. He had only tried it three times since his time his arrival to the palace, and he was still recovering from the scares and embarrassment of those attempts.

"_The universe is asking too much from me! Defeat the invincible Ti Lung, easy. Stop a deranged peacock from conquering China. Fine! But now the obstacle course of doom! Stupid universe. What did I ever do to you!?_"

"Come on Po! We are cheering for ya." Monkey shouted from the sidelines.

"Yeah, show that course who's boss, buddy!" Mantis encouraged.

Despite the extreme pain that Po knew he'd be facing, hearing the moral boosting words from his friends lifted his spirits. Now armed with the spirit to fight, the dragon warrior stared down into the course and began his self-pep talk.

"All right course what you got? Nothing, cause I stole it when you weren't lookin'. You think you can handle the bodacity of the Dragon Warrior. Well think again! I'm lightning. I strike so fast, you'll be like, 'ah what hit me?' And I'll be like lightening that's what, and its about to strike twice. Then you'll be like..."

"Go!" Quite exasperated by his student's foolish rant, Master Shifu decided to take the initiative to provide the "push" that Po needed to get started.

"Yuhahoooo!"

Po fell into the course unprepared but was somehow able to recover himself to properly face his old nemesis head on.

The progress in his skills were quite apparent, as he was able to adapt well to his unexpected fall and begin it like normal. The others were absolutely amazed at how well Po was doing as he was slowly able to block his way the endless swarm of wooden strikes, after wooden strike. Mantis and Monkey stared with mouths agape, unable to believe that they could very well lose the bet. Viper and Crane on the other hand were cheering their heads off, utterly exited for their friend to make it to the other side.

Tigress just stood watching with her arms crossed and an unreadable expression on her face. Truth be told, she was actually quite impressed by the progress that her comrade was exhibiting. For all of his senseless babbling and minimal training, it appeared that the dragon warrior was still able to make considerable progress after the battle with Lord Shen. An aching feeling inside of her was prompting her to be jealous of Po's progress, but surprisingly, she found that feeling to be easily overwhelmed by her pride. Not pride for herself, but for her friend. He had grown so much since his arrival in the palace, able to overcome his so many trials to reach the level he was in now. Yes, she could not help but be proud.

Tigress was so caught up in her own thoughts, that she barely noticed when the dragon warrior made it to the other side.

"Hey guys! I made it!"

"Wahooo! Way to go buddy!"

"That's our panda!"

Mantis, Monkey, and surprisingly even Master Shifu all stood staring with mouth's agape at how much better their chubby warrior had become. They really weren't expecting him to be able to make it through that easily considering his track record, but there he stood in all of his...glory.

"Hey, Monkey! Looks like like you ow me 15 almond cookies."

"*Grumble*"

"What was that? It was actually 30! Thanks for reminding me."

"Hey!"

Eventually, Shifu was able to shake off his initial shock and address Po directly.

"Well done Panda. It seems that you haven't been slacking nearly as much as you let on. Come back over and we will resume training as usual."

"No problem Master!" Po yelled back and prepared to walk around, but was stopped by Mantis' voice.

"Hey buddy! Since you did so well, why don't you go through again to come on back over."

"Yeah," Monkey added. "Shouldn't be a problem for you anymore, right?"

Overcome by confidence, Po could not help but accept the challenge. "That's right! Cause I got this course DOWN! Hold on. Be there in a se...SE...SE...ECKKKKK!"

The dragon warrior lost his footing and fell back into the course completely unprepared. Unfortunately, this time he did not quite have the mind to recover, and what followed was a repeat of the last time.

"Gyahhhhh! OUCHHH! OOHHHOOOOO! GAHAHAH!"

"Some things never change." Master Shifu muttered to herself as she watched her friend go through the torture of the course.

"Looks like you owe us those cookies back." Monkey taunted Crane with a smug grin.

"Hey, I didn't bet on this one!" Crane argued.

"Hey, this so counts!" Mantis shot back. "This is still just as much a part of his punishment."

"No way!"

"Guys!" Viper smoke trying to break them up.

"Um guys! Gyowwww! KINDA DYING HERE!" Po screamed as he was hit square on by one of the wooden warriors.

Tigress lightly shook her head at the scenes unfolding before her. With each passing scream, angry word, and useless fight that she observed, she could not but wonder to herself...

"_How could they all be the strongest warriors in the land, and yet be so...thick?_"

**Tigress**

Wood. Wood everywhere. That's all that the eye could see within the training halls of the Jade Palace. Scattered brown spickets exploding like fireworks. Po and the rest of the warriors stood watching Tigress in absolute amazement as she utterly decimated the remains of whatever obstacle course once stood before them.

It shocked Po exactly how incredible his idol really was. He had always heard rumors of her impervious Kung Fu, but seeing it up close like this, its like those exaggerated stories were lacking significant details; yet despite how godlike she appeared, he knew that even she had her limits, and considering that Tigress had been at this for a good three hours, he guess that that limit would be reached soon.

"Hey, uh, Tigress! I think the dummies have had enough." Po called out to her.

"Kiya." Said tiger did nothing to acknowledge Po's remark.

"Dude, you know there is no way Tigress is going to stop." Mantis reminded his friend.

"At least until she passes out or Master Shifu calls us." Crane added.

"But we can't just let her overdo this again." Po tried to appeal. "You remember the last time she spent this much time training."

"Hey, if you want to try and stop her, than be my guest." Monkey admonished.

"Well, I could use a little help you know."

The others took a step back and looked at Po like he was insane.

"Po, your a good friend and all, but I don't think I'm willing to die for you quite yet. At least not like this." Mantis explained.

"Come on guys. I'm serious!"

"So are we." Monkey spoke back with a blank expression on his face.

"Po, just let her have some space." Viper tried to warn.

"Yeah, Shifu isn't here to save you this time." Mantis added.

"Whatever! If you guys won't help me, then 'll just ask her myself."

Po then began to march off into the training grounds to try to get Tigress's attention.

"He's dead." Crane spoke matter-of-factly.

"Yup," Mantis agreed in the same tone. "but she is tired. Maybe she'll make it quick."

The two gave each other a quick glance before speaking simultaneously.

"Nah."

"Let's get out of here before she makes us all join her like last time. We'll be back to clean up the mess."

"Uh, boys." Viper muttered on the way out. "Stay safe Po. Tigress won't really hurt you, but still..."

Tigress herself was in such a deep trance of violence that she did not even notice Po trying to get her attention. As she continued crushing the the obstacles in front of her, Tigress increased her intensity of attacks with each passing punch.

"_Why? Why am I so weak!? Always training my heart out, yet I could not make my master proud, I could not defeat Ti Lung, and I could not even save my friend_!"

Tigress didn't even flinch as her fist collided with a metal spike and penetrated her flesh. She only moved her injured hand away and destroyed the wooden warrior that harbored her "aggressor."

"_I cannot allow my weakness to get the best of me! I will continue to refine my skills until every error becomes non existent; for my own sake...as well as those around me._"

Despite feeling absolutely exhausted, Tigress found herself increasing the intensity of her assault, barely even giving herself a chance to breathe. She crushed target after target. Her fist collided with wood, then metal, then more wood, then...a fist?

Tigress blinked in confusion when she found that her latest attack had been caught by a black and white, furry paw.

"Please don't kill me! It's just that I have been trying to get your attention for the last ten minutes so I..."

Tigress toned out the rest of Po's plea after hearing the first part. How deeply had she been into her training if she couldn't even hear her own name being called?

"and we just thought that it'd be best if..."

Finally recovering from her initial shock, Tigress removed her fist from the Dragon Warrior's grip and addressed him.

"What do you want Po?"

"Well...its just that you've been at this for hours. We just thought that it'd be a good idea to take a break, you know. Maybe take a break and grab something to eat with me and the guys." He suggested somewhat nervously.

"...go on. I will be with you shortly."

"You said that an hour ago! Come on, just..."

"I said: go ahead."

"Not without you."

The two stared each other down with narrowed eyes for several moments in a breathtaking silence before Tigress finally broke it, with a voice with even more of an edge behind it than before.

"Leave Po, unless you wish to become my training partner."

Po visibly flinched, earning a satisfied look from the Tiger. She was about to turn around to continue her training when:

"If that is what it takes to get you back."

Tigress blinked in surprise at the audacity of her comrade. He knew as well as she did that he stood no chance against her. Why was he so persistence in separating her from training? Whatever the reason, she had to keep her word.

"Very well." She addressed him, while regaining her fighting pose. "Ready?"

"Fine, but if I win you gotta take a break. Deal."

She did not respond directly to Po's question, but her nearly invisible nod was more than enough of an answer for Po. The Dragon Warrior quickly went through his inner peace dance before taking his own signature one to face his friend directly. The two stared at each other for a moment of silence before Po finally charged.

Tigress was absolutely overwhelmed by the improvements exhibited by her friend as she actually found herself struggling to hit him. She just couldn't understand it. Here she was facing the same Dragon Warrior who had would always shy away from training, who she had defeated easily at the prison, and took life as nothing but a joke; yet somehow, he was strong enough to face her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that he was always strong enough. He was strong enough to bring peace back to the valley, to defeat Ti Lung, to protect China against Lord Shen, to face his lack of spiritual peace, and now he was strong enough to face her.

The fight did not last nearly as long as it could have. Po dodged a perfectly formed strike from Tigress before pulling in the direction she attacked, causing her to fall off balance. Po quickly capitalized on this loss of footing by attacking her with his signature belly bump. By the time she had hit the ground, Po had already placed his fist right in front of her face prompting Tigress to stare up at him in shock.

For a brief second, Po himself could not believe that he had actually won, as his eyes widened in shock as he stared down at his best friend, but that moment flew away as soon as it came. He had more important matters to look after.

"There." He slowly took his fist away from her face and continued. "Now, will you please come with us."

Tigress was at a loss of words. Despite all of her training for the last few hours, she had lost to Po of all people! The very same Panda that she easily overpowered at Chor Gom. She just could understand.

"How?" Po heard her whisper.

"Huh?"

"How are you so strong?"

Po blinked, utterly confused by what she was asking him. "Umm, what do you mean?"

"You have always been strong enough. Despite your lack of substantial training, you have always been strong enough to stop whatever threat comes our way, whatever you feel must be done. How?"

The two stared deep within each others eyes for several seemingly awkward moment before Po finally spoke.

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I guess whenever I fight for something I believe in, or someone I care about, I feel like I can face the world, you know? "

Her eyes then shifted away from her friend and two the ground she was sitting on. She had always been taught that fighting with emotions was a weakness, and there was still no doubt in her mind that it was. Emotions clouded ones judgment, as was evident when Po left Shen alive to find the answers he was looking for; but could this great weakness really be the fuel behind one's strength as well?

"I don't understand."

"Like I said, neither do I, but hey! Its a journey, and you start by taking the first step." Po then offered his hand towards her. "Please, Tigress. For my sake, as well as your own."

Tigress stared at her friend's hand in wonder. To her, if she took it, it would mean more than a simple offer of help and Po knew that. It would mean turning her back on her continuous training as her means of success. It would mean putting her trust in someone other than herself, something she had avoided ever since Shifu had taken her in.

Despite all these cons, Tigress found it within her heart to smile and take the hand anyway, much to Po's joy. He then pulled her up, and, as if he had been inside of her mind the entire time, he asked. "So, uh, what made you decide?"

She then took Po off guard by suddenly throwing herself to embrace him. After seconds of awkward silence, she whispered.

"I won't have to do it alone."

After Po was released from the initial shock, he found the mind to wrap his arms around her as well.

"No...you won't."

Well, that's that. Hopefully, it won't take too long before the next update ;)


	2. Chapter 2

**Difference Between Him and She**

A/N: Thanks everyone for the support, and I will apologize outright for the wait. Life has became a bit more hectic then I originally anticipated. Thankfully, things have at least managed to fall into a schedule, so gaps this long should become non-existent. As for the story itself, this one was a lot harder to write than I originally anticipated as the subject is simple, yet the differences between the two are so vast. Eventually, I decided that splitting the two's stories altogether would probably work out for the better, especially considering the length needed for each. I'm putting the final edits on the Po side, so you can expect it within a week or two. Anyway, thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoy this short just as, if not more than the others.

**Anger**

**Tigress**

The distinct sound of metal hitting wood was heard throughout the kitchen as Po was busily preparing the vegetables for his famous secret ingredient soup. Today, he was making an unusually large batch to take the orphaned children down in the valley. Unfortunately, for the others, this meant that they would have to wait longer than usual for them to get their food; and after a long day of training, their stomachs certainly were not happy with the situation. The Furious Five sat together around their small dining table, waiting as patiently as they could for the signature soup; but this patience was starting to wear out.

"Come on, man! How much longer?" The impatient insect complained.

"Calm down Mantis." The dragon warrior responded in between the chops of fresh vegetables. "It should only be another half hour."

"Half hour!? We'll all be starved by then!" The ravenous primate chimed in.

"Hey, I'm hungry too," Po retorted as he emptying the board of vegetables into his soup. "but I did warn you guys that it was going to take longer than usual today! Just snack on some cookies or something until."

"Ughhhh!" Crane groaned with the others in agitation.

"Just please hurry up Po." Viper commanded as politely as he could.

The panda only nodded in response before returning to his cooking. As the warrior resumed dicing the vegetable, his thoughts roamed to his idols. Po couldn't explain it, but somehow he felt that the Five had not exactly been themselves recently. They were all constantly on edge, the slightest mixups or mistakes setting them off into a roar of complaints. The only one who did not appear to act much differently was Tigress, but even she seemed to be avoiding the others a lot more than usual. Po sighed deeply at his musing. The dragon warrior was supposed to be the master of many things, but apparently, the animal psyche wasn't one of them.

As time went on, the Furious Five became more and more irascible as their empty stomachs continued to beg and scream for food. Po tried a few times to initiate conversations with his friends in order to take their minds off the hunger; but, as anticipated, he was either callously ignored or promptly insulted. In the end, the usually chippy dragon warrior deciding to remain as quiet as possible, lest he become the recipient of one of their verbal lashings.

Tigress, appeared to be the only calm warrior of the group. She sat in her chair with her arms crossed and an entirely blank expression plastered on her face. Unfortunately, looks were quite deceiving. Though she appeared calm to the others, she was actually becoming quite irritated as well. In addition to her undernourished stomach, she was silently suffering through some mild to severe injuries from an abnormally rough day of training. The tiger had attempted on multiple occasions to clear her mind of the lack of peace within herself; but between the constant battering amongst her allies and her malnourished stomach, she felt that the already extreme lack of clarity would worsen even further.

As if things were not bad already, events took a turn for the worst when Monkey and Mantis entered into an escalated argument.

"Oh yeah! You may act tough, but a cub from any species could easily crush your tiny body!" Monkey insulted as he pointed his finger at the insect across his seat.  
>"Hey! I may be small, but at least I'm stronger than you, banana breath!" Mantis challenged.<p>

"Oho! So we're playing the species card. All right then, maggot size! How about you prove it right her and now in an arm wrestle!"

"You're on noodle arms!"

"Erggghhh! Would you guys just stop it!" Viper complained.

"For once, she's right." Crane inserted, also annoyed. "This has gone on long enough you two!"

"What do you mean for once?" Viper asked angrily, only to be rudely ignored by the bird.

"Hey! He was the one who challenged me. I have to finish what he started."

"Ughhh! You two are hopeless." Viper hissed in annoyance.

The two locked hand and "thingy," ready to take the other one down for the earlier insults.

"Could you two do this some other time?" Po requested politely as he rushed to put the final ingredients into the large pot. "The food's almost ready, and I'm pretty sure we'd all like to eat more than watch you wrestle."

"No way Po! He insulted my Mantishood. Time to show him who's boss."

Amongst the increasing chaos from the arm-wrestling match, Tigress found herself losing what little composure she felt she had left. The warrior did all she could to keep herself quiet: shutting her eyes ever so tightly, digging her claws into her lap, and even clenching her predator teeth together as tightly as she could; but it was getting to become too much for the poor tiger. The others, still in their all out verbal war, even throughout the arm-wrestle, were utterly oblivious to her condition. She did find solace in the fact that Po was doing his best to quell the fighting; but simply put, the solace wasn't enough to calm her soul.

Right before the match was over, Po announced that the food was ready, to try to calm everyone down. It seemed to work quite well, as Crane, Viper, and even Tigress were able to scoot back from the edge of their seat and await their meal. Unfortunately, the prospect of food was not enough stop the argument that formed between Monkey and Mantis after the match.

"You so cheated in that arm wrestling match." Monkey accused his opponent.

"How the heck do you cheat at arm wrestling?" Mantis retorted.

"I don't know. Maybe its because YOU DIDN'T USE ANY ARMS!"

"I don't have any arms you nitwit!"

"Well, neither does Viper, and she could still beat you!"

"Don't involve me in this!" The snake hissed in agitation.

With every passing word between the two, Tigress's body grew tenser and tenser to the point where she wasn't even hiding her irritation anymore. Normally, she would have been lashed out at them for their foolish behavior; but she was so much pent up rage, that she was honestly concerned as to how she would handle the situation. So instead of reacting, she merely kept her eyes shut and tried her best to ignore all of the arguing going on around her.

"Not only am I stronger than you, but I also have skills that you could only dream of getting after years of practice." Mantis insulted.

"What, praying?" Monkey retorted smugly.

"Acupuncture, idiot!"

"See! You admit it yourself. You used your acupuncture pins to give yourself an edge."

"Grr! I'll show you how they could give me an edge."

In the blink of an eye, Mantis caught monkey off guard by throwing the tiny pin into the primates upper arm. Out of reflex, Monkey's arm convulsed, colliding with a completely oblivious Po, who just so happened to be carrying a small bowl of hot secret soup. Entirely caught off guard, the bowl fell out of Po's hands, into the air, and...into Tigress's lap.

Absolutely everyone in the kitchen froze in utter horror as the worst possible coincidence unfolded before their eyes. It was a nightmare come true, as soon as each of the other warriors finally realized how much anger their leader had been building up inside of her soul. Time froze, as all of the warriors stared in dreaded suspense at their leader, awaiting any signs of a reaction. Upon hearing a low growl from the tiger, Mantis fainted and the others lost every bit of control over their muscles from the paralyzing fear of the monster before them. The now four conscious warriors accepted their fate in choking silence, as Tigress stared down at the table before her with the rage fueled eyes of a killer. No one dared to blink, make any sort of movement, or even breathe, lest they be the first victim of her obvious wrath.

All of the remaining warriors' hearts skipped several beats as the Tiger broke the silence by sliding her chair back with an oddly heart-wrenching sound of the squeaking chair. Never taking her low, menacing gaze off the table, she slowly stood to tower above her victims. The other five warriors all said a prayer for themselves and hoped to God that they would not be the first victim.

Surprisingly, instead of lashing out viciously as expected, the angry warrior simply turned to the side and began to walk, as calmly as she physically could, to exit the kitchen. She made zero eye contact with any of comrades, only slightly grazing Crane with her shoulder, causing him to fall onto the ground from the unexpected contact. Crane lay on the ground absolutely stunned...stunned, but still very much still alive, to his relief.

Unable to comprehend how close to death they had all just been, everyone remained paralyzed in silence for another good while. It seemed like they would all be in this position indefinitely, but thankfully Monkey finally managed to break the silence.

"I think I just peed myself."

Apparently, there was no shame in his confession, considering everyone just felt lucky to be alive; though the comment did manage to snap everyone back into reality. Po, actually comprehending everything that had taken place for the first time, narrowed his eyes at his friends in disappointment and growled out

"I hope you all are happy with yourselves."

With those last words, the dragon warrior bolted out of the kitchen to catch the raging Tiger.

After several minutes, Po was finally able to locate his target, nearly stomping towards the hallway that lead to the training room. Po hesitated for a moment, realizing how angry she must have been to ignore her exhaustion and hunger to train once more, but that hesitation was crushed as soon as it came. She was his friend, and he had to help her. He then ran down to the hallway and began to shout for her.

"Tigress!"

He slowed his sprint significantly as soon as he noticed her response to his call. She stopped her movement entirely and her body cringed together as though she had been frightened...or irritated. Considering that this was Master Tigress, Po guessed it was the latter.

"_I really hope this is a good idea_." The dragon warrior then gulped for perhaps the last time in his life and slowly approached the stationary Tiger. Halfway through his walk towards her, the raged warrior turned around to face him for the first time since the event, and Po was honestly surprised by what he saw. He was expecting her to still show signs of being furious over the earlier incident, yet she appeared entirely calm. Truth be told, this expression seemed only slightly more menacing than her usual judgmental stares. Still, Po decided to proceed with caution, because for Tigress, that difference still produced a very dangerous looking tiger.

"What do you want Po." Her voice also caught the panda off guard. She had to still be quite upset from the recent, yet her voice was deceptively just as calm and soothing as he had always known it to be. If he didn't know any better, he would say that she was perfectly calm.

"I just came to apologize for before."

"You have nothing to apologize for. Their actions had nothing to do with you."

"Still I was the one who spilled the..."

"Your apology is accepted. Now please leave."

"It is? Cause...I sure don't feel like it was." Po added very cautiously. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Leave Po." She commanded in her signature firm, yet gentle tone. "I just need some time to myself."

"Umm, ok...but before I go, I do have a question." Po tried to insert.

"Save it for later." Tigress ordered.

"I'm, um...not sure it can wait."

Tigress blinked a couple of times, wondering what her friend could possibly find so important amidst all of this confusion.

"What is it then?"

"Don't you find it strange...the others I mean. Sure they fight a lot, but recently it has just felt...different. It was as if they were all unusually edgy."

"..."

"I know...stupid idea."

"Your theory does have some merit."

"Huh? Really?"

Tigress looked down at her paw as she continued to speak.

"Emotions rarely affect me. I keep each on a tight leash, anger included; yet over the past several days, I have noticed a significant decrease in my ability to control this particular emotion."

"Soooo, you think there is some weird spiritty artifact affecting us?"

"In so many words, yes. That would also explain the others lack of control."

"Makes sense, I guess." Po confirmed aloud. " So, what do you think that we should do?" Tigress remained silent for a moment in reflection before responding.

"All we can do is wait until Master Shifu returns and hope that he can diagnose the problem. Until then, just limit your interaction with the others, as well as myself."

"Sounds like a plan!" Po responded happily. "I'll just...wait... I just thought of something. How come I'm not affected by whatever is going on around."

"Hard to say for certain, but perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you have found peace within yourselves."

"Woah! This inner peace thing seems cooler ever day. You should so try to get it! Honestly, you deserve it! I don't see how you could act so calm in those situations, and not have peace with yourself!"

Apparently, Tigress took those words as an insult to her pride as she lowered her head, grit her teeth, and spoke in a slightly deeper voice.

"Po..."

"Huh?"

"Run."

"What? Why would I...EEEEKKK"

Po shouted in fright when he saw Tigress re-lifted her head to reveal the most livid expression he had ever seen upon her face. The panda then bolted away in a speed that no one his size should possess, with a very angry feline giving chase on all fours.

"_Guess I'll have to focus on this issue a little later. Right now staying alive is top priority!_" 

That's that. Thanks for reading. Again, I should have the story out for you guys within the next week or so, considering that I already have the majority of Po's side complete. I'll add any further comments at that time. Until then, PEACE!


End file.
